1. Chapter 15
The Bureaucracy

2. Distinctiveness of the American Bureaucracy
Constitutional system and traditions
Supervision shared
A federalist structure shares functions
Adversary culture leads to defense of rights and lawsuits
Scope of bureaucracy
Little public ownership of industry in the United States
High degree of regulation in the United States of private industries

3. Growth of Bureaucracy The early controversies
Senate consent to removal of officials is challenged by supporters of a strong president
President is given sole removal power but Congress funds and investigates

4. Growth of Bureaucracy The appointment of officials
Officials affect how laws are interpreted, the tone of their administration, and their effectiveness
Use of patronage in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to reward supporters
Civil War a watershed in bureaucratic growth; showed the weakness of federal government

5. Growth of Bureaucracy A service role A change in role
: shift in role from regulation to service
Reflects desire for limited government, laissez-faire beliefs, and the Constitution's silence
A change in role
Depression and World War II lead to a role of government activism
Introduction of heavy income taxes supports a large bureaucracy

6. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Direct and indirect growth
Modest increase in the number of government employees
Indirect increase through the use of private contractors much greater
Growth in discretionary authority
Delegation of undefined authority by Congress
Primary areas of delegation
Subsidies to groups
Grant-in-aid programs
Enforcement of regulations

7. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Factors explaining behavior of officials
Recruitment and retention
The competitive service: most bureaucrats compete for jobs through OPM
Appointment by merit based on a written exam
Decreased to less than 54 percent of federal government work force
The excepted service: most are appointed by other agencies on the basis of qualifications approved by OPM
Fastest growing sector of federal government employment
Examples: Postal Service employees and FBI agents
But president can also appoint employees: presidential appointments, Schedule C jobs, and NEA jobs
Pendleton Act (1883): transferred basis of government jobs from patronage to merit
Merit system protects president from pressure and protects patronage appointees from new presidents ("blanketing in")

8. Federal Bureaucracy Today
The buddy system
Name-request job: filled by a person whom an agency has already identified for middle- and upper-level jobs
Job description may be tailored for person
Circumvents usual search process
But also encourages "issue networks" based on shared policy views

9. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Firing a bureaucrat
Most bureaucrats cannot be fired
Exception: Senior Executive Service (SES)
SES managers receive cash bonuses for good performance
But very few SES members have been fired or even transferred

10. Federal Bureaucracy Today
The agencies' point of view
Agencies are dominated by lifetime bureaucrats who have worked for no other agency
System assures continuity and expertise
But also gives subordinates power over new bosses: can work behind boss's back through sabotage, delaying, and so on

11. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Personal attributes
Allegations of critics
Higher civil servants are elitists
Political appointees and career bureaucrats think about government and politics differently than public at large
Correlation between type of agency and attitudes of employees: activist versus traditional
Professional values of officials

12. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Do bureaucrats sabotage their political bosses?
If so, such sabotage hurts conservatives more than liberals; bureaucrats tend to be liberal
But loyalty to bosses runs strong--despite the power of bureaucrats to obstruct or complain
Whistleblower Protection Act (1989) created Office of Special Counsel
"Cooperation is the nature of a bureaucrat's job"
Most civil servants: highly structured roles make them relatively immune to personal attitudes
Professionals such as lawyers and economists in the FTC: loosely structured roles may be much influenced by personal attitudes, professional values help explain how power is used

13. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Culture and careers
Each agency has its own culture
Jobs with an agency can be career enhancing or not
Strong agency culture motivates employees but makes agencies resistant to change
Constraints
Biggest difference between a government agency and a business: hiring, firing, pay, procedures, and so forth
General constraints
Administrative Procedure Act (1946)
Freedom of Information Act (1966)
National Environmental Policy Act (1969)
Privacy Act (1974)
Open Meeting Law (1976)
Assignment of single jobs to several agencies

14. Federal Bureaucracy Today
Agency allies
Agencies often seek alliances with congressional committees or interest groups: "iron triangle"
Far less common today; politics has become too complicated
More interest groups, more congressional subcommittees, and easier access for individuals
Far more competing forces than ever given access by courts
"Issue networks": groups that regularly debate government policy on certain issues
Contentious and partisan
New president often recruits from networks

15. Congressional Oversight
Forms of congressional supervision
Approval necessary for creation
Statutes influence agency behavior (sometimes precisely)
Authorization of money, either permanent or fixed number of years
Appropriation of money allows spending

16. Congressional Oversight
Congressional oversight and "homeland security"
Lieberman's call for Department of Homeland Defense after September 11 attack
President Bush's creation of Office of Homeland Security
Appointment of Governor Ridge and the blueprint for homeland security
Congressional calls for testimony about strategies
Need to coordinate personnel and budgets
Proposal of a Department of Homeland Security
Consolidation, reorganization and transformation
Need for Congress to reorganize itself to make the bureaucracy work
Immediate protests about committee and subcommittee jurisdiction
Congress' historical tendency to resist streamlining

17. Congressional Oversight
The Appropriations Committee and legislative committees
Appropriations Committee most powerful
Most expenditure recommendations are approved by House
Has power to lower agency's expenditure request
Has power to influence an agency's policies by marking up an agency's budget
But becoming less powerful because of
Trust funds: Social Security
Annual authorizations
Meeting target spending limits

18. Congressional Oversight
Legislative committees are important when
A law is first passed
An agency is first created
An agency is subject to annual authorization
Informal congressional controls over agencies
Individual members of Congress can seek privileges for constituents
Congressional committees may seek committee clearance: right to pass on certain agency decisions
Committee heads may ask to be consulted

19. Congressional Oversight
The legislative veto
Declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court in Chadha (1983)
Weakens traditional legislative oversight but Congress continues creating such vetoes
Congressional investigations
Power inferred from power to legislate
Means for checking agency discretion
Means for limiting presidential control

20. Bureaucratic Pathologies
Red tape--complex and sometimes conflicting rules among agencies
Conflict--agencies work at cross-purposes
Duplication--two or more agencies seem to do the same thing
Imperialism--tendency of agencies to grow, irrespective of benefits and costs of programs
Waste--spending more than is necessary to buy some product or service

21. Reforming the Bureaucracy
Numerous attempts to make bureaucracy work better for less money
Eleven attempts to reform in this century alone
National Performance Review (NPR) in 1993 designed to reinvent government
Differs from previous reforms that sought to increase presidential control
Emphasizes customer satisfaction by bringing citizens in contact with agencies
NPR calls for innovation and quality consciousness by
Less-centralized management
More employee initiatives
Customer satisfaction

22. Reforming the Bureaucracy
Bureaucratic reform always difficult to accomplish
Most rules and red tape result from the struggle between the president and Congress.
This struggle makes bureaucrats nervous about irritating either
Periods of divided government exacerbate matters, especially in implementing policy.
Republican presidents seek to increase political control (executive micromanagement)
Democratic Congresses respond by increasing investigations and rules (legislative micromanagement)